Breathing Techniques

Respiratory therapist Nickole Hackney shows you how to practice pursed lip breathing and diaphragmatic breathing.

There are two common breathing techniques that can help you use your lungs better: pursed lip breathing and diaphragmatic breathing. You can use these techniques anytime, but it’s especially helpful to practice them often and consistently– and before you start an activity that often makes you feel breathless.

In This Article

• Pursed Lip Breathing
• Diaphragmatic Breathing

Pursed Lip Breathing

Pursed lip breathing increases your blood oxygen level, decreases shortness of breath, and makes it easier to breathe. It may also help ease anxiety and stress. 

• Keeping your mouth closed, breathe in through your nose for 1-2 seconds
• Purse your lips and breathe out for 3-4 seconds 
• Repeat! 

You can practice pursed lip breathing anytime, but it is especially helpful when you’re feeling stressed or before you begin activities that make you breathless.

• Stress and anxiety can make you feel short of breath, which can cause more anxiety, leading to more breathlessness. So when you start to feel stressed, try pursed lip breathing to help you calm down and breathe easier. 
• If you’re about to walk up a hill, start pursed lip breathing as you walk to the base of the hill. Continue pursed lip breathing as you walk up the hill and as you come back down. 

Tips: 

• Make sure you are sitting or standing up straight when you breathe in. This gives your lungs enough room to expand. 

Diaphragmatic Breathing

In diaphragmatic breathing, you use your diaphragm—the big muscle just below your ribcage—to breathe in and out. This strengthens the muscles around your lungs and helps you use your lungs more efficiently. 

Here’s how you do it: 

• Stand up straight or sit back in a comfortable chair. 
• Put one hand on your stomach and take a deep breath in. 
• When you breathe in, the hand on your stomach should move out, away from your back. 
• Exhale, letting your stomach drop toward your back. 

You can also use a piece of paper or a notebook instead of your hand. Just place the notebook on your stomach and watch it rise and fall as you breathe in and out. 

Like pursed lip breathing, you can practice diaphragmatic breathing anytime. Some people find it especially helpful to do before getting out of bed in the morning, getting up from a chair, or before going to sleep at night.

• Diaphragmatic breathing not only helps your lungs draw in more air, but it also decreases how hard you work to breathe. For example, breathing with your shoulder muscles—or moving your shoulders and chest up and down with each breath—is much more tiring than using your diaphragm.